


The Eye of Heru

by greenbirds



Category: NCIS: Los Angeles, Stargate SG-1
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, alternate abydos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-08
Updated: 2012-03-08
Packaged: 2017-11-01 15:28:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/358394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greenbirds/pseuds/greenbirds
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The woman called Hetmehti dwells in the House of Kasuf, but she is not of the House of Kasuf.</p><p>Falls between <a href="http://synecdochic.dreamwidth.org/162630.html">Mirage</a> by synecdochic and <a href="http://ivory-gates.dreamwidth.org/11084.html">Oasis</a> by Ivorygates.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Eye of Heru

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [mirage](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6434521) by [ivorygates](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivorygates/pseuds/ivorygates), [synecdochic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/synecdochic/pseuds/synecdochic). 



> My profound thanks to Ivorygates for the beta, and for encouraging me to write this in the first place (and also for naming Hetmehti)

The woman called Hetmehti dwells in the House of Kasuf, but she is not of the House of Kasuf. 

It is said that in the year when Sha’re-daughter-of-Kasuf was an infant in her mother’s arms, Hetmehti, like one of the spirits who rides the wind, came alone across the desert to Nagada in the dry season, to bearing only the clothes she wore, a veil of fine wool, and four golden bracelets. Kasuf, moved by compassion, or perhaps by the will of the Gods, brought the woman called Hetmehti under the roof of his great House and made her welcome there, and welcome at his tables, and Hetmehti dwelt under Kasuf’s roof for almost a full turn of the moon from full to new to full again while the women of the House spoke fearfully of her and said that Kasuf should turn her back into the desert which brought her to them, for surely Hetmehti-of-no-House bore upon her shoulders ill-luck or worse. Instead, Kasuf clothed her in fine wool and fine linen and gave her a place among his people, and the women looked over their shoulders and forebore to speak her name; nor did they allow her to look upon their children.

It is told in the House of Kasuf that before the moon turned again, there arose a great wailing among the women beneath the roof of the great house, for a young woman of the town labored long to bring forth her firstborn son, and the midwife swore that soon both mother and child would go to walk with the gods. But finally Hetmehti had come through the throng of women to the side of the midwife, and she had spoken quietly to the midwife and the young mother, and Hetmehti had promised the young mother that while she would someday – as all eventually would -- stand before Ma’at and the forty-two judges for the weighing of her heart, it would not be this night. Hetmehti with her clever hands had brought forth the child safely and whole, and placed the child in his mother’s arms, and the child and the mother had lived.

After that there was no more talk of casting Hetmehti out of Nagada, for surely she was touched by the gods. 

The seasons have turned and turned and turned again and the yaphetta has grown tall and been reaped and grown tall again many times, and Sha’re who was a babe when Hetmehti came among the women of the great house is now soon to be lightened of her firstborn child. Still Hetmheti dwells among the women of the House of Kasuf, and yet apart from them. 

She is dark-haired and dark-eyed and no bigger than a girlchild in her tenth year, and in her seasons in the House of Kasuf, Hetmehti has brought forth alive many a babe who should not have lived, and overseen – with great gentleness, and the proper prayers – the last moments of the old and the dying. She is wise in the ways of herbs and all manner of growing things that heal, and in Nagada she is counted first among all the midwives. 

When Hetmehti goes forth into the world outside the walls of the great house, she does so properly veiled and with all modesty, and she does reverence to Ra in his Rising at the appointed times. None may say that she does not behave in a manner which befits a woman of the House of Kasuf.

It is said in Nagada that to give a secret into Hetmehti’s keeping is to cast a stone into a well; Hetmehti will no more give up a secret that she holds in trust than a stone might rise again from the deep waters. She is a keeper of hidden things, and a carrier of burdens. 

And yet many of the women and no few of the men of the great house speak of her with fear in their voices and in their hearts and avert their eyes when she passes. Touched by the gods she may be, and a worker in miracles, but Hetmehti-of-no-House is strange and alone like the spirits who ride the desert winds when they howl, and her dark eyes watch everything and weigh all they look upon against some inner measure none may guess.

When they can be sure the words will not come to Hetmehti’s ears, the women call her a spirit. The eye of Ra, some say, or his shadow, or his breath.

Even Bau’thi-the-potter, whose skill, like her mother’s before her is known not just within the walls of the House of Kasuf or in Nagada, but in all the villages scattered across the sands of Abydos, and who walks tall among women and speaks easily with men(and even with Dan’yel-who-walks-with-Gods), speaks as cautiously of Hetmehti as she might of the misfortunes which come in from the desert with the summer storms, and hawks, and jackals. Bau’thi is careful of the tiny woman who stands in the shadows, lest she draw down upon herself Hetmehti’s wrath. 

Alone among those who dwell within Kasuf’s walls, only Dan’yel and his twin Dana’re do not look upon Hetmehti with fear, for she calls Dana’re “little sister” and has been as a mother to them both from the moment they first opened their eyes upon the sunlit world and drew breath to cry. When they were very small, it was Hetmehti who gave them candied figs and dates and little honeyed cakes and all manner of good things to eat, and told them the stories of the shapes made by the stars in the night sky, and tales of the deep desert. 

And, though it was not seemly for a woman to know such games, or to teach them, when Dan’yel and his heart-twin were nearer to grown, it was Hetmehti who taught Dan’yel and Dana’re to play upon the senet-board. It was their secret between them, and it seems to Dan’yel now that Hetmehti played at least as well as some of the men who have tested their skill against Dan’yel’s in the years and the seasons since he first learned to play. 

When Dan’yel, came into his gift as a knower-of-knowings, Hetmehti did not fear him, but rather gazed upon him with some manner of distant kinship and stroked his hair while he wept upon her knees as if he were her true-son. So it was that when Dan’yel-son-of-Kasuf became Dan’yel-who-walks-with-Gods and the knowing came upon him too young and unprepared, he cast his burdens into the well the spirit-woman had prepared for them, and they sank out of sight, and Hetmehti has kept them ever since.

Hetmehti is not afraid when Dan’yel’s shadow touches her, nor does she shape her speech only into the words she thinks he wants to hear, and he knows that in the dimness of her workroom, which has always smelled of earth and all the fragrant things that grow in it, Hetmehti will make him welcome with cushions and tea and such fresh fruit as has come to her hand, and he may find some measure of comfort.

Hetmehti is a different matter entirely for the man Oneer, who is new-come to the House of Kasuf. 

Oneer has been more-than-guest in the House of Kasuf for two turnings of the moon before he lays the matter of Hetmehti upon Dan’yel’s knees as a man might lay down a sack of ore, heavy and awkward, and yet Dan’yel is not surprised to hear the words of Oneer. For already Dan’yel regards Oneer as brother-not-of-blood and they have been seen together often in one another’s company, and while it is not yet widely known among the people of the great house that Oneer would have Dan’yel’s heart-twin to wife, or that Dana’re has set her heart upon Oneer, to imagine that Dana’re has not yet spoken of these matters to Hetmehti is to imagine that the sun might rise in the South, or that the winter rains might follow hard upon a sunrise in deep summer. 

Dan’yel, in truth, has been waiting these last days and more to hear this tale that Oneer would tell, though Hetmehti has not yet had speech with Dan’yel about the matter of Oneer. Dan’yel knows that Hetmehti will wait to speak until she has seen all that she wishes to see of the newcomer within these walls, until she has weighed the heart of Oneer against Ma’at’s feather and rendered judgment within her own heart, and then she will bring her words to Dan’yel, and, more quietly, to Kasuf-his-father who, in the sight of others, treats Hetmehti as he would any other woman of the great house, but, when she comes to him out of the sight of his people, heeds the words of Hetmehti and values the seeings of her keen eyes. Dan’yel has known this since he was first old enough to put on bright robes and stand at his father’s side.

In secret, Dan’yel knows, Kasuf-his-father calls Hetmehti _Heru_ after the desert falcon who soars high above the sand and watches all below with its bright pitiless gaze.

And so Oneer comes to Dan’yel of an evening and they share bread and oil and dates and olives and a pitcher of cool water between them and finally Oneer, who is seldom shy with his words for all he says he has only plain wit and no talent for honeyed speech, speaks hesitantly of the little woman who seems to watch him from within every shadow and whose silent steps shadow his comings and his goings, from the workshop of Bau’thi-the-potter where he works with the clay, to the tent of Dan’yel, his brother-not-of-blood, and all throughout the House of Kasuf where Oneer now dwells. 

Dan’yel knows in his heart that Hetmehti means for Oneer to see her, for if Hetmehti did not, Oneer would turn and see only shadow, or motes of dust dancing in sunlight, or a bit of cloth moving in the wind. _Heru_ means for Oneer to know that she watches him, and she sees, and she waits.

Dan’yel could offer an explanation which would set the heart of Oneer at ease, and which would be true after a fashion even if not the truth: Dan’yel could say that Hetmehti is a master of the healer’s art, and has knowledge of herbs and oils and of the setting of bones and the cleansing of the blood and thus may go where she will in the great house, for illness and injury are misfortunes which befall men in the same wise as women, and Hetmehti must tend to her patients. But Oneer is heart-friend and brother-not-of-blood, and the mind of Oneer is quick and discerning; he deserves more than kind words which are almost a lie. 

So Dan’yel tells Oneer of Hetmehti-of-no-House who dwells within Kasuf’s walls, and better Dan’yel speak of Hetmehti to Oneer than one of the other men or even Bau’thi-the-potter, for Hetmehti has been as mother to Dan’yel and Dana’re, and they do not fear her gaze or her words or what is in her heart and they know that Hetmehti is a woman of flesh and bone and no spirit brought to the doors of their tents by ill-wishing and the hot desert wind. 

Dan’yel knows that when old age dims the sight of the woman called Hetmehti, and dulls her clever fingers, that Dana’re will ask he-who-is-her-husband to bring Hetmehti within the walls of their tent, that Dana’re may care for she who calls Dana’re “little sister” at the end of her days. It is well, then, that Oneer should learn to know Hetmehti as they do.

He says to Oneer that Hetmehti loves Dana’re of the House of Kasuf well, and wishes to know what sort of man he is who has set his heart upon the daughter of Kasuf, and what lies within Oneer’s heart.

Dan’yel does not say to his brother-not-of-blood that Hetmehti is not to be feared.

It is a secret that has never been spoken between Dan’yel and Kasuf-his-father, but even before the knowing came upon him Dan’yel has been clear-eyed. For many turnings of the seasons, he has known without being told that _Heru_ , who Dan’yel and Dana’re call _mewet_ for they will always remember her more clearly than the mother who bore them, serves as more than merely the hidden eyes of his father the priest-king, and Dan’yel knows also that the judgment of _Heru_ is sometimes as merciless as the deep desert itself. Just as life and death are brothers, hand-in-hand, the herbs that heal can also kill.

Dan’yel knows too that Hetmehti must wonder how it has come to be that a man from the deep-mines now stands within a few breaths of joining the royal house, and making a wife of Dana’re who is more precious to Hetmehti than lapis or gold or even clear fresh water. And yet it seems to Dan’yel that he sees in the eyes of Oneer a kind of kinship with the woman who came alone across the desert with a fine veil and four golden bracelets, for what Dan’yel sees graven behind the eyes of Oneer is the same as what he has always seen in Hetmehti’s soul, though none in the House of Kasuf have ever known the tale what befell Hetmehti before she came across the desert with the storm winds: the sort of loss that rends a heart, and leaves what is left to harden or bleed.

Sha’re-Eldersister once told Dan’yel and Dana’re that Kasuf sought to show Hetmehti how he valued her by finding Hetmehti a good man who would take her into his house and honor her, but Hetmehti would not accept that gift, nor would she accept the gift of love from any in the House of Kasuf until she the day that she brought the twin children of the priest-king into the sunlight and gave them her heart.

So Dan’yel speaks unto Oneer and says not that Dan’yel will speak to Hetmehti-called- _mewet_ on Oneer’s behalf, but that Oneer should himself go to Hetmehti in her workroom and sit at her feet, and say to her truly all that is in his heart, and Dan’yel’s brother-not-of-blood looks at him as if Dan’yel has commanded him to walk naked into the deep desert and lie down with the jackal. 

“But you have agreed that I am so greatly learned that you must heed my word in all things,” Dan’yel says to him, “and I have not yet said unto you that the mastadge is as mild as the newborn kid, so you have no reason to doubt my tellings.” 

At Dan’yel’s words, Oneer laughs aloud, casting aside for a moment the chill that all men feel upon discovering that the gaze of _Heru_ has fallen upon them as the gaze of her namesake might fall upon the tiny mouse that seeks in vain to hide in the shadow of the great dunes, and after a time there is love-of-the-body between Dan’yel and his brother-not-of blood. For a brief while the heaviness of the words that have passed between them lies forgotten.

It is some days before Oneer heeds the words of Dan’yel and has speech with Hetmehti whose steps follow in his tracks and whose piercing gaze circumscribes the days of Oneer, and in that time Dan’yel and Oneer do not speak again of the little woman. Dan’yel knows well that Oneer is a man who considers things in his own time, and can no more be forced on to any path than a man might move the sun disk across the sky just by wishing. And so Dan’yel talks of other things with Oneer, and challenges him on the senet-board, and is patient.

The moon is swelling toward full before Oneer has speech with Hetmehti, and Dan’yel first knows of it because Hetmehti herself comes to Dan’yel with a basket of herbs balanced upon her hip. She has found _senetjer_ for him, and other things that Dan’yel finds needful, and it makes for a simple excuse for Hetmehti to bring her words to the ears of Dan’yel-brother-of-Dana’re.

Hetmehti has always held her words as close as if they are as precious as clear water in the deep desert and not to be spent carelessly or without heed, and so she says only a little to Dan’yel, and yet it is enough and more than enough.

Hetmehti says to Dan’yel that Oneer seems to her a good man who speaks truly, and that Dana’re may have one of Hetmehti’s golden bracelets as a bride-gift, should Kasuf-father-of-Dana’re agree to the match. And then she takes up her basket of herbs again, and passes silently beyond the flaps of the tent of Dan’yel-Who-Walks-With-Gods and out into the heat of the day. 

When Oneer comes to Dan’yel that evening, still smelling of damp earth and fire from the workshop of Bau’thi-the-potter, he still does not speak of Hetmehti to his brother-not-of-blood, but Oneer looks at once both strangely eased and as if the grief he has worn like the old remnant of a badly-healed wound is fresh once again. And Oneer sits at the feet of his brother-not-of-blood, and he begins.

“Let me tell you of my family, Dan’yel.”


End file.
